Business Showcase : Changing up the hospitality sector with Preoday

Preoday is a digital ordering platform that helps food and retail businesses around the world open new revenue streams and improve relationships with customers.

We provide a white-labelled technology that enables customers to order ahead from a website or mobile phone; the technology gathers relevant customer data for the operators so they can improve their marketing offering and make more informed business decisions.

How are you different?

The underlying architecture of our platform is scalable and flexible to the varying demands of our clients. Unlike others, we have experience across multiple verticals within the food and hospitality sector – we have worked with businesses from large multi-site franchises to single venues and are active across Europe, North America and Australasia. Our international capabilities mean we can can work with any currency or language and can adapt for local regulations and taxes.

It’s why, in a young market, we are one of the few companies that is still going strong into its fifth year.

Why will you do well?

We are doing well and will continue to do well because of our experience in the market. When we speak to clients for feedback we hear a few things time and again. They tell us that they are impressed by our strong back office functionality, which includes analytics. They know that we have partnerships with some of the biggest names in the market including Worldpay, and that gives them confidence in the long-term resilience of Preoday and our ability to scale.

They are complimentary of our efficiency and ability to understand their wider vision for customer experience and know we there to support them and grow the service in line with their aspirations.

Where are you based?

Primarily, we are based in the UK, but our team is international and we have staff around the world.

When was the company launched?

We were founded in 2012 and spent the first couple of years perfecting the platform before going to market in 2014.

What have been your biggest wins to date?

We have some amazing Irish clients including Aviva Stadium, as well as Platform Pizza and Box Burger just outside of Dublin (there are more Irish clients to announce soon). Outside of Ireland we are proud of our work with a range of clients including the Royal Opera House in London, The Shack in Norway and the Hungry Monkey ordering aggregator in Gibraltar. Hungry Monkey has proved so successful, nearly a third of the population has placed an order using it.

Who are you trying to attract to your product?

We want to work with food and retail businesses of all sizes, that might mean a chain of restaurants, or it may be station forecourt stores, shopping malls or sport stadiums. Any business that wants to improve the hospitality experience, streamline operations and get to know customers better, we want to work with.

What tips would you give to others looking to build their business?

I am a big believer in the power of the brand and the importance of taking control of your public persona. Companies need to truly own their brand and their data if they don’t want to be indebted and reliant on others for their success. Taking control doesn’t need to be expensive – if you’re sensible and work hard you can grow your revenue without relying on external bodies gaining a commanding stake in your company.

My second tip is a simple one – commit. You get out what you give, so commit yourself and choose a team that can dedicate themselves 100% in order to achieve the results you need. Sometimes it can be tough to encourage that level of dedication from staff, so think carefully about what you do to incentivise people – at your earliest stages, hire people with a belief in the business. Down the line, consider ‘perks’ but make sure there’s a degree of personalisation involved, you can’t broad brush a whole team and what incentivises one person will not work for another.

Tell us about your team?

We are strong and united in our goals for Preoday.

As individuals the Preoday team is experienced and has operated at all levels, including within enterprise businesses; as a team we have worked with companies from single venues to large multi-site franchises. Our enthusiasm for the market is a big driver for our platform and our dedication to customer success is often one of the first things our clients will comment on.

I personally have had a long background in business development and have held senior roles with companies including leading global advisory, broking and solutions firm, Willis Towers Watson and with Microsoft UK as part of the Azure team.

What are your plans for the future?

In the medium/long term, to be the number one provider of digital ordering platforms to food, retail and hospitality businesses around the world.

Our immediate future is focused on expanding our client base and service offering. I’ve already mentioned the flexibility and scalability of the platform; that means we can adapt with the market as it changes. For instance, in February we released a new feature called Hotline – this enables venues to sweep up customers that still place their orders by telephone, gathering their data alongside digitally ordering customers to provide a clear audience profile to businesses.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

I am relatively traditional when it comes my gadgets. I keep up with the latest releases from my favourite brands (I’m a loyal Apple fan) but am less interested in some of the ‘unnecessary’ gadgets out there; I’m not yet ready to invest in a camera drone. On the other hand, I adore my Sonos, the sound quality is exceptional – and of course, there’s my iPhone!

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

I’d love a reliable virtual assistant to pull of my tasks into one place and manage anything administrative for me. The nature of a business like ours is that I want to be out there selling and driving the company, but there’s frequently a pesky spreadsheet trying to divert me.

Anything else you’d like to add/we should have asked?

Our technology partnerships are very important to us. Companies don’t need to settle for an ‘all-in-one’ solution that fails to meet expectations when they can employ the use of multiple first-in-class solutions that integrate with each other.
Preoday has a flexible API which means it can work alongside and with much of the technology a client already has in place; we actively integrating with some excellent technologies already, including Datasym, Kobas, WRS systems and TISSL.